DOMINION POWER. By R.G. Hardy

Transcription

1 The most important message for every believer in the church at this time is the last revelation that God gave to Paul for the church. While in prison waiting for Nero to chop off his head, God gave Paul this great revelation recorded in Ephesians, especially for our day. I call it Dominion Power. This is the thing that the church needs most. What s so great about this revelation is that it is for every individual. God wants you to have this dominion power. In Ephesians 1:15-23 Paul prayed for you and me, the church. I believe that next to Jesus, Paul always got his prayers answered. In talk about this power. FOUR DEFINITIONS FOR POWER Throughout Ephesians, Paul used four synonyms for power, and we must understand their meanings in order to comprehend his prayer and his teachings. 1. The first word he used is dunamis, and it has two meanings. Usually, when we say, dunamis, the first thing people think of are miracles. This is its secondary meaning, but not the primary meaning. The basic idea behind dunamis is, it is possible. When you have the power of dunamis, anything is possible to DOMINION POWER R.G. Hardy This dynamic two-part series based on Ephesians defines and imparts the power behind apostle Paul's prayer for the believer to be armed and battle ready for spiritual warfare. "Dominion Power" A 2 CD set with over 40 tracks including: What is the Power? Exceedingly Great Power God Wants Us to Know 2 Cassette set: $10.00 Postpaid (U.S. Funds) 2 CD set: $ Postpaid (U.S. Funds) By R.G. Hardy you, because it is the inherent ability to be able to perform anything. In fact, some think the better translation of dunamis is ability. Jesus said in Acts 1:4, After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, you shall receive power or the ability of God This takes in the whole scope, so it means the ability to be able to perform anything, or achiev- verse 19 he said that he was praying that we might know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward (talking about God), according to the working of His mighty power. He prayed for us to know the exceeding greatness of His power. The word know means to experience it; not just to hear about it. Then Paul piled up superlatives to 2 15

2 ing power. All the words from the dyna root mean to be able, to be capable of. Simply, it is the power of possibility. The secondary meaning of dunamis is the ability to perform mighty acts of power. Thus, from this is derived the translation miracle. It s the power of enablement, that is, dynamic ability. God wants you to have dynamic ability. He wants to make you dynamic. So what is a dynamo? A dynamo is a power that is able to reproduce itself. That s what God wants to do. He wants to get into us as individuals and reproduce Himself, His ability through us. 2. The second word for power is energeia, from which we get the English word energy. It denotes the effectual working of the ability. It s the taking of dunamis and putting it into operation. It s taking the dynamos and energizing them. It refers to the effectual, working ability, or operative power of God in some task. It could have been translated in Ephesians 1:19: According to the efficient, active working of his mighty muscle power. 3. The third word for power is kratos, often translated mighty. It refers to might or strength as it is put forth as dominion, or ruling power. It denotes the presence of force. It is strength to overcome any obstacles and any foe and to completely rule them. It is might put forth in an effectual government as dominion rule. We find its derivatives in such words as democrat, plutocrat, and aristocrat. For instance, democrat is actually two Greek words: demo means people, and crat means power: The people rule. Plutocrat means the rich rule. Aristocrat means the best rule. So it is dominion power to conquer a foe and then rule over him. Many armies may go to war and win the war, but then are not able to dominate the people. But God s power not only defeats the enemy, but then completely dominates and rules. 4. The root for all of these power terms is in the fourth word, ischus, and it means inherent strength. It s the power residing in one as a possession. It s muscle power to bind the strong man. Remember Jesus said that you cannot take over a man s house until you first bind the strong man (Ref. Matt. 12:29). This is the muscle power that enables you to bind the strong man. In relation to one another, kratos is the ruling power that is exerted, energeia is the exerting of it, and dunamis is that ability that makes everything possible to you. GOD S SUPERLATIVE GREATNESS The next thing that Paul wanted us to know about this power is its exceeding greatness. The human language is not adequate to express how great God s power is, so Paul used the Greek word hyperballon translated exceeding, which means to flow beyond, to go beyond, to go above, to 3

3 surpass, and be in excess of. God s power goes beyond exceeding. It goes beyond above. It s the absolute, as some would say in our day. It is surpassing and unlimited. It excels beyond anything that is required. The second term, greatness, is the Greek megathos or megathon, which means mighty, explosive beyond measure. This is the Greek word from which we get the English word megaton. A megaton is what we use to gauge atomic power and to measure atomic explosion. Man can measure an atomic explosion, but he cannot measure God s atomic exploding power! You could almost say that God s power is so exceedingly great, that even He doesn t know how much power He s got! Do you know why? There s never been a demand for that kind of power! His power has never been brought to its very extreme! The power He exerted to create all the worlds and universe didn t tax Him a little bit; nor to supply all the needs of everybody on the earth! He said, All the needs of the nations, with My power, are like a drop in a bucket (Ref. Isa. 40:15). God s power is beyond comprehension. There are not enough modifiers to modify it. There are not enough superlatives to explain how great this power is. It s never been tested. It s never been brought to its maximum. You know, when most powers on earth come to their maximum, they blow up or break down the machinery. God s power has never been brought to its maximum, even to bring all these galaxies of billions of stars into existence. An expanded translation of Ephesians 1:19 would read: I m praying for you to know the unlimited, surpassing, beyond measure, of His explosive greatness, to us who believe, according to the effectual working of the dominion power of Faith Is Action (USPS ) The official voice of R.G. Hardy Ministries. Published monthly by Faith Tabernacle, Inc W. Patapsco Ave., Baltimore, MD (410) Periodicals: Postage Paid at Baltimore, MD. No Paid Advertising Accepted. Subscription $5.00 per year. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Faith Is Action, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, MD

4 His mighty strength. God wants us to know and to experience it! PAUL S PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH Against this back drop of Paul s usage of these terms, let s examine his prayer beginning in Ephesians 1:15: Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. We will not be able to have the knowledge of Him, how great God is and His power, except we have to have it by revelation. God has given us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to reveal the greatness of His power. So many of God s people are afraid of their own shadow, and they don t even know the greatness of God s power that God has turned towards us and that is at our disposal. Paul said, I want you to know it, because if you know it, then you re going to want it. You will do everything to get it. So he said, The first thing I m praying for God to give you is the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The key is in Him, not referring to the gifts or manifestations of the Holy Spirit to call somebody out, or to discern sickness, etc., but in the knowledge of Him how great and mighty He is: How great and mighty 5 His power is, and what His power can do through us, His body. The second thing Paul prayed for us to receive is: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened... We must be enlightened. There s been a veil on this book of Ephesians for a long time, but we are in the wind up time, and we need His mighty power to thoroughly defeat and dominate Satan and his hordes of demons, and to loose the multitudes who are bound. Our generation is bound more than any generation that has ever come on the face of the earth, by drugs and alcohol, and many other satanic forces, and the only thing that is going to set them free is for you and me to come to the knowledge of this dynamic power of God, experience it, and then have it operable in our lives! God wants to give it to us. He doesn t want us running around like spiritual whimps. He wants us to be supermen, because the child of God is a superman. He wants us to have the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, and for that spirit to flood us with enlightenment and divine illumination. Whenever you read Ephesians, you should also read Colossians at the same time, because they say the same thing in a different way. In Colossians 1:9, Paul said it this way, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His

5 will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The same is stated in Eph. 1:17,...that you might have the spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of Him. Then with our eyes enlightened with revelation, in verse 18, he states the three things He wants us to know: The first is, that you might know what is the hope of His calling... Let s pause and define the Bible word for hope: Patient, confident, expectation. What are we expecting? What is the hope of God s calling us? He has called us to be in Christ, unto holiness, to freedom and peace, and also to suffer for His glory. Paul said, If we suffer with Him, we shall reign also with Him (Rom. 8:17). He s called us into a new life in which we know (experience now), obey, and serve Christ, enjoy fellowship with Him and with each other, and look beyond our present suffering to the glory which shall be revealed. This is the hope that He has called us to. The second thing Paul prayed for us to know in Eph. 1:18 is: what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. God wants us to know how valuable we are to Him. The devil would make you think that 6 you are a nobody, beat you down that you re just a nothing, but you are valuable to God, and every one is an important part of His plan, and He wants you to know that to build up your self esteem. If the devil comes to you and says, Who are you?, say, I m a child of God, and I am important to God. God cannot work His will on earth without humans. We are His body. That s how important we are. He made us an integral part of Him. He wants us to know that we are His heirs. Romans 8:17:...Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. If you know that you are an heir of God, quit hanging your head down like you are poor. Get up and look up and say, I m an heir of God. The earth is the Lord s and the fulness thereof, and all there is therein. And it belongs to me, because I m God s heir, and I m a joint heir with Jesus. One for Jesus, one for me. Two for Jesus, two for me joint heirs! We share everything that is His. He said, All things are yours. Do you believe that God made this world for the devil and demons and sinners? No, He made it for you and me. It s ours, and we are going to get it. The devil has invaded it, but God s going to illuminate us to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; to let us taste that supernatural power, and energize it in our lives to give us the ability that everything is possible to us: If thou canst believe, all things

6 are possible to you. We are going to activate it to get the devil out of our loved ones and bring deliverance to our generation, so Jesus can come back. He said that this Gospel will be preached with a witness. What Gospel? The Gospel of Jesus, with signs and wonders and miracles that deliver, that break the yoke, and open up the door of the prison house, and let the oppressed go free. I m like Paul, I m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation... It is the power that saves, that delivers, that sets men and women free. God wants you to know it. God wants you to experience it, and God wants you to acquire it, the exceeding greatness of His power that is available to work in us as believers. Paul also stated in Colossians 1:11: I m praying that God will strengthen you with all might, according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. He said, I m asking God to empower you with all might (kratos), according to His glorious muscle power (ischus) that will give you patience, longsuffering, and you will be happy and not in defeat. Jesus put it this way in Luke 10:19: Behold, (and that means to stop, look and listen. Quit listening to the devil, but listen to God; listen to Jesus.) Behold, I give unto you power over all of the power of the enemy. You shall tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing by any means shall hurt you. The devil won t be able to throw anything at you to hurt you, because you ll have God s exceeding, above measure, beyond comprehension, power that s able to do anything and to completely rule and dominate him. We cannot deliver mankind without it, and you can t really live an overcoming and victorious life without it. That s why some people are up and down, in and out, because they lack this dominion power. The third thing God wants us to know: And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according the working of his mighty power, (vv ). Are you a believer? If you are, God wants you to know the exceeding greatness of his power. THE DEMONSTRATION OF HIS POWER Paul has just told us how exceeding great God s power is. Now he gives us an example in verses 20-22: And what is the exceeding greatness of His power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places; Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church. 7 Continued on page 10

7 God said, I m going to show you what My power can do. I energized it in Christ when He was in the tomb. His disciples thought it was all over. Remember when the two men met Jesus on the road of Emmaus, and they didn t know it was Him? They said, We thought he was the Redeemer, but he is gone. They didn t realize how great God s power was, but God demonstrated that power on that third day beyond measure, beyond comparability. His energizing, dominion-ruling, muscle-ruling, power went into that tomb, got into that body, quickened it made it alive! Not only made it alive, but changed it. Jesus didn t come out of the tomb the same way He was put in. He came out a glorified Son of God. He had the same flesh and bone body, but it was glorified. It was a body that could walk through a wall, that could come into a room, and they couldn t see it until He manifested Himself. Remember when He came in the upper room, and the disciples were all scared to death? He had already appeared to some of them, and Thomas had said, Except I put my hand in the scars of His hands and side I won t believe. Then all of a sudden, out of no where, Jesus materialized. In Ephesians 1:20, Paul showed there were two raisings: God raised Jesus from the dead with a glorified body, and then He raised Him above every principality, every power, every throne, every dominion, every name and title named in this world age and in the age to come! Then He sat Him at His own right hand, the supreme place of honor and glory, and put all things, the devil and all the demons, and all the worlds and earthly leaders, and everybody under His feet, and gave Him to be the head of the church in all things. What mighty power! It gave life to that corpse, changed and glorified it, and Jesus came out the Lord of Glory! You see, the babe of Bethlehem can t help you. He couldn t help himself. The man of Galilee, the lowly Nazarene, and the Jewish Messiah in the days of His flesh cannot help you now. Christ on the cross can t help you. You need to get Him off the cross. A Christ in the tomb can t help you! But only a living, glorified, almighty, risen Lord of glory with all power in Heaven and earth, and every principality, and every power, and every throne, and every dominion, and every name, and every potentate under His feet! He is the chief, the head of all of these things: He is the head of the church which is His body, which is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (vs. 23). He is the one that is filling everything with everything, or all things 10

8 with everything. I m talking about that s what that dynamic power did to Jesus on that third day, and He has turned it toward me, and I believe I can whip any devil or demon now in the Name of Jesus! First God raised Jesus from the dead with a glorified body. Then He raised Him in position and set Him on His own right hand, and gave Him a Name that is above every name. Paul said in Philippians 2:9-10: Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee (anything that has a knee) should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father. Paul used should, because it is a subjunctive case in the Greek, and the word hina means purpose. God raised Him up with the purpose that everything that has a knee must bow, in Heaven, on the earth, and underneath the earth. He made Jesus the head of all powers. Jesus said, All power of heaven and earth is given unto me (Matt. 28:18). The Father just turned it all over to Jesus. With that power, He conquered every satanic force that held mankind in bondage, and He subjected everything under his feet, in this age and in the age to come. His death on the cross stripped all the satanic forces of the right and power to hold mankind in bondage and broke every curse (Gal. 3:13). Jesus didn t defeat the devil at Calvary. He was already defeated, but because we had sinned and broken God s Law, it was a legal thing. The devil had a legal right to hold us. He held the handwriting contained in ordinances that was against us, that was contrary to us. Jesus paid the debt of all humanity, the original debt of Adam, to which we just added interest with our sins. We are sinners not because we sinned: We are sinners, because we were born sinners, and we sinned because we are sinners, because of Adam. But Jesus paid our i.o.u.! THE CROSS TRIUMPHANT This is what Paul said in Colossians 2:13-15: And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together (made alive) with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities, and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. This was accomplished by His death on the cross our trespasses were forgiven, blotted out, and nailed to the cross, and Satan and all his princes were openly notified of their cancellation. They were stripped of any legal right to hold them against us! But in order for us to be raised 11

9 out of the power of sin unto righteousness, Jesus had to be raised from the tomb and above all dominion. The picture Paul intends is of a Roman general coming back from a conquering victory, and he would be given a day of celebration in Rome. All of Rome would come out and cheer, sing, and throw flowers, like they did here when the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl. Everybody went crazy in the streets. Well, this is what they would have done for that great general. On his chariot would be chained the naked king and his military subjects as his captives, and he would carry them through the streets in triumph. That s what God has done in Jesus: Raised Him and gave Him that dynamic power, by which Jesus stripped the devil of all of his authority and power to hold mankind, chained him and his demons to His chariot, the cross, and made a show of them openly in all the universe that they are utterly defeated. (Christian, you don t have to be afraid of the devil, because God has stripped him of his power, and because you are a child of God, that same power is yours! God gave it to you, but Satan fights a cold war and tries to talk you out of it.) For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet (1 Cor. 15:25-27). Sitting up there in Heaven, He has conquered everything, even death, so that we can say with Paul, O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? Death is swallowed up in victory (by the death and resurrection of the Lord) (vv ). GOD S POWER FOR THE BELIEVER Continuing in Ephesians 2:1, Paul says this is what His dominion power has already done for every believer: And you hath he quickened (I want you to notice that every one of these promises is in the past tense which is the aorist tense in the Greek; and refers to something that has occurred in the past and is completed. He s not going to quicken us. He s not in the process of quickening us. He s already done so!) who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, This means that we walked according to the mind set of the world, and John said, All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of the Father, abideth forever (1 John 2:15-17). Doing the will of the Father is the opposite of walk- 12

10 ing in the course, the evil system, the mind set of the world. Romans 12:2 says, Be not conformed to the world The word conform means to be put in a mold. That s what the devil does; he has a worldly mold and he puts the sinner on his assembly line, and they all look alike. All worldly people look, act, talk, think and do alike. I m in God s mold! I have been transformed: And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Paul stated that Satan, the prince of the power of the air, is now energizing the children of disobedience. The word for works is engereia. They have a power working through them to be disobedient. The more he energizes them, the more disobedient they are. First they are disobedient, and then they become rebellious, and they want to do more. Children of disobedience means they are not the children of God. They have a different father. Jesus said that they are of their father, the devil, and his lusts they will do! (Jn. 8:44). Among also we all had our conversation (conduct) in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind; and were by nature children of wrath, even as others, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved) and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:3-6). This is beyond comprehension, this exceeding, great power that has done these things to Jesus and then hath quickened us with Him! He forgave us all of our sins, washed us in His blood, begot us by His Word, put His Spirit into us, made us heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus, raised us up above all principalities, and powers, and thrones and dominions, and every name, not only in this age but in the age to come. He has seated us with Him at His right hand of honor and glory. Because we are His body (the feet), He has placed all things under our feet. There in Christ, we reign with Him forever and ever! This was the absolute display of God s absolute power! It has been said that when the New Testament writers wanted to express the ultimate display of God s love, they pointed to the cross, but when they wanted to show the ultimate display of His power, they pointed to the empty tomb! And to this I would go still higher: To the throne on the right of God where Jesus sits with all power under His feet That is dominion power! 13